"You mustn't take that seriously, Mrs. Wells. These crystal visions are
common enough--the books are full of them. It's a phenomenon of
self-hypnotism. You are in a broken-down nervous condition after months
of excessive strain--that's all, and these hallucinations result, just
as colored shapes and patterns appear when you shut your eyes tight and
press your fingers against the eye-balls."
This did not satisfy her. "What I want to know is whether there is any
possibility that I really did what I saw myself do in that vision? Do
you think there is?"
"Certainly not. I believe you did exactly what you tell me you did--you
spent a few minutes in Christopher's studio and then came away angry
because he kissed you. By the way, I don't see why one kiss from a man
who loves you and has asked you to marry him should have offended you so
terribly, especially when you admit that you care for him?"
His tone was one of good-humored indulgence for capricious beauty, but
Mrs. Wells kept to her seriousness.
"I didn't mean that I was really angry with Captain Herrick. I was angry
at myself for the thrill of joy I felt when he kissed me and I was
frightened by the wave of emotion that swept over me. I have been
frightened all these days--even now!" She covered her eyes with her hand
as if shrinking from some painful memory.
"Please don't agitate yourself. You must not get hysterical about this.
You must have confidence in me and in your own powers of recuperation.
And you must be sure to give me all the facts. Did I understand you to
say that something else has happened--since you wrote me?"
"Yes, something quite unbelievable--it happened last night."
"Tell me about it--quietly, just as if you were discussing somebody
else."
Penelope smiled wistfully. "How kind and wise you are! I will try to be
calm, but--it is hard for me. I had a dream last night, doctor, and this
dream is true. I have evidence that it is true. I did something last
night without knowing it, and then I dreamed about it."
"You did something without knowing it?"
"Yes, I put on a red dress and a black hat that I have not worn for four
years, not since my husband died. For four years I have only worn black
or white."
"Do I understand you to say that you put on these things without knowing
that you put them on?"
"Yes."
"How do you know you did?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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